Amy Winegarden

What pulls at the heart strings, plays the violin strings, and opens the purse strings? What captures the imagination, begins the vision, enhances the dream, and enriches the soul?

The story.

PR, marketing, even grantwriting and business proposals have come full circle as storytelling has returned. In the world of charitable giving, those who open their hearts and pocketbooks want to feel the return on their investment.

The following well known John Donne passage is often mistaken as a morbid call to the dying from the grim reaper when, in fact, it is a call to action for the living.

No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thinenown were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. John Donne, MEDITATION XVII, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions

Donne is simply saying that I am my brother's keeper or, more aptly, "as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." (Matthew 25:40)

As Jacob Marley told Ebenezer Scrooge, “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business! " Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Whether your cause is environmental, political, ecumenical, educational, medical, or philanthropic, yours is the business of humankind. The call is to live as though each moment and every person is the last. To open our hearts, minds, and wallets to those in need. And your story is the impetus for action.

I will weave your compassion and your mission with your call to action.